Happy Year of the Ox!

The Lunar New Year marks the first new moon of the traditional lunisolar calendar, and is a joyful festival celebrated in China and other Asian countries, such as Vietnam and Korea. While this year we won’t see any in-person celebrations on campus, we hope to bring a sense of festivity by sharing a few cheerful new year greetings, made by a student band, OnSabbatical, and several students in Chinese language classes.

The Red Envelopes in Spring (春意红包)

Hi, we are a small band called OnSabbatical. Several Chinese students in the class of 2024 initiated the band and we hope to communicate more and practice music more while adapting popular songs. This specific song was made for the celebration of Lunar New Year. Happy New Year and hope everything goes well in the new semester.

Piano: Sonia

Chinese zither & Audio Processing: Flora

Flute: Linda

Violin: Charlie

Base: Stella

Euphonium & Video Processing: Boris

Chinese Poem “New Year’s Day” (元日)

The third-year Chinese class read a very famous poem called Chinese New Year’s Day, written by Wang, Anshi from the Song dynasty. The poem paints a picture of how Chinese people welcomed the New Year back in the day.

元日 New Year’s Day

王安石Wang Anshi

bào zhú shēng zhōng yī suì chú

爆竹声中一岁除，

Amid the boom of firecrackers a year has come to an end,

chūn fēng sòng nuǎn rù tú sū

春风送暖入屠苏。

And the spring wind has wafted warm breath to the wine.

qiān mén wàn hù tóng tóng rì

千门万户曈曈日，

While the rising sun shines over each and every household,

zǒng bǎ xīn táo huàn jiù fú

总把新桃换旧符。

People would put up new peachwood charm for the old.